Descent into Darkness
by 8BonnieBlue8
Summary: The Midnighters are on their way to Sunnydale for a holiday. Only they're about to find out that a holiday doesn't exactly mean a good time. Especially where a certain mindcaster is concerned. What could the old town have in stall for them? Melissa x Rex
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I do not own Midnighters or Buffy the Vampire Slayer; they are the wonderful work of Scott Westerfeld and Joss Whedon. _

_A/N: Right, well, this is a crossover between Midnighters and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It isn't necessary for you to have seen any of the Buffy episodes as the characters will be explained as the Midnighters find out more about them. If you are a Buffy the Vampire Slayer watcher, well, then you'll just know a few more things._

_The story's centred mainly on Melissa as she is my favourite character, but includes all the other Midnighters and most of the Buffy characters as well. _

_Pairings so far: Melissa x Rex, Jonathon x Jessica, Buffy x Angel, Willow x Oz..._

_Setting: After the first Midnighter book and about mid third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer._

...

**Chapter One: The Town is Evil**

"Why are we doing this again?" Melissa asked, hands tightly clutching the steering wheel as her and the rest of the Midnighters made their way towards the town of Sunnydale. They were still about 24 miles away from the town yet there was still a bitter taste caked with misery in the air coming off it. It made her sick to the stomach and not for the first time she wished she'd let someone else drive. She was sure to crash the old car if this continued. Her hands were clutching the steering wheel so tightly that it looked about ready to come off.

"Remember? We all decided we wanted to go on a holiday," Rex told her patiently, sensing her irritation.

"Yes, but why do we have to go to _Sunnydale_?" She said through gritted teeth.

"I told you: my aunts in Sunnydale and she offered us her place to stay at," Jessica told her from the back seat of the car.

"So your aunt's crazy then?" Melissa asked; she couldn't see how anyone living in Sunnydale couldn't be. She certainly would be in about an hour's time.

"No," the flame-bringer replied, looking rightly angry. "What makes you say that?"

"She must be – living in Sunnydale."

"You haven't even been to Sunnydale, what would you know?" Jessica retorted.

"No, but I can taste it," the brunette replied. "The town's evil."

Rex looked at Melissa cautiously. "Cowgirl, we must be over 20 miles away, how could you taste it from here?"

She didn't answer, her gaze fixed firmly out the window shield at the road in front of her. An uncomfortable silence took over the car.

"Come on, Melissa, how can a town be evil?" Dess asked, breaking the silence.

Still no answer.

"And besides my aunt and cousin have been living there for almost three years, and they're perfectly normal," Jessica said. "Well, as normal as my cousin could ever be with a name like Buffy."

That got Melissa's attention. "Your cousin's name is Buffy?" Jessica nodded. "And I thought Desdemona was bad."

"Hey!" said girl protested.

Jonathon and Rex chuckled.

"Anyway, you'll love them," Jessica continued as if she hadn't been interrupted.

Melissa didn't say anything more, they were approaching Sunnydale fast and with each passing meter the taste and emotions she was feeling got even worse. It was shoddier than any darkling she'd ever had the pleasure of knowing. Maybe it was because the Darklings weren't actually evil, but this town . . .this town was beyond that.

Rex eyed her carefully, for the first time noticing the tremble in her hands and the way she cringed out the window as if having trouble seeing what was in front of her. "Hey, do you want me to drive?"

Normally she would have protested, tried to convince him that she was fine, tried to act strong and not show any weakness. But right now she didn't even have the strength to shake her head let alone fight about it. Sunnydale was draining everything out of her and the conflicting emotions she received from it had her on the verge of passing out. She could barely even see the road anymore.

Without a word she brought the car to a screeching halt. The mindcaster slammed the side door open and stumbled out trying to bring the fresh air of the outside world into her constricting lungs. But the town's hold on her was too strong and she continued to get only a minimum amount of air in.

Melissa jumped as she felt a hand on her en-clothed shoulder and turned to see Rex standing behind her, looking thoroughly concerned.

"You OK?" he asked.

"Sure," she lied, slowly heading over towards the passenger side of the front seat.

The three people in the back of the car were silent, eyes wide in amazement at the weakness she had allowed herself to show. She could care less what they thought of her right now though, and heaved the car door open. Sliding into her seat she pulled out her headphones. She hadn't had to use them for much of the journey due to the fact that they were pretty much the only human inhabitants around for miles. It had been much of a relief to her, nearly as good as the Blue Time.

But now that had passed, apparently, and she needed her music desperately. Sometimes she wondered whether her relationship with her headphones was the same relationship a junkie had 

with drugs. She certainly couldn't go without them for long, usually breaking out in a cold sweat. Once she'd even bordered on hysteria when they were at school on Exam day and one of the boys there had snagged it and thrown it into a toilet. She'd had to go the rest of the day without it, all the while the school's unrelenting voices needling their way into her mind. Hence the near hysteria.

But was it really the same addiction? She needed her headphones to stop herself from going crazy whereas most drugs were usually something that made you crazy, or close to it anyway. So could it really be called the same thing? She doubted it, but still had a niggling feeling of contrdiction in the back of her mind regardless.

The mindcaster flinched at the sound of a door slamming and turned her head around to see Rex in the driver's seat, still eyeing her with concern. She turned her head away and looked out the side window, a sure sign for him to set off. Stumblingly she turned the volume up on her MP3 and allowed her eyes to close as the car took off. The music blocked the town's invasion to a point but not completely, and she soon found herself wishing they could have gone somewhere else.

Conversation had resumed in the back and Rex had turned his attention back to the road.

Twenty-five minutes later and Melissa felt as if her head was going to implode. They had almost reached Sunnydale and with doing so she had almost reached breaking point. Her MP3 was so loud her ears were beginning to ache beyond belief and her hands hadn't stopped trembling since she had handed the car over to Rex. She dug the heels of her palms into her temples trying desperately to get rid of the monstrous headache and block out the town's uncontrolled chaos that was now living inside her head.

Melissa had taken to counting in different languages in her mind. It was something Dess always did when she was under stress or some other chaotic occurrence. Melissa had taken to doing it as well.

_Satu, dua, tiga, empat, lima, enam, tujuh, delapan, Sembilan, sepuluh, sebelas, duabelas, tigabelas..._

Melissa rubbed her temples harder, the nausea she was filling getting stronger and stronger.

_Un, deux, trios, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix, onze, douze, treize..._

Her eyes snapped open.

"Stop the car," she said, trying to keep her voice under control.

"Wha-" but Rex didn't have time to finish.

"Stop the car!"

The seer slammed on the brakes and there was a collective sound of groans from the backseat. Melissa took no notice, heaving the side door open she stumbled out. Blindly making her way over to the _Welcome to Sunnydale_ sign and emptying the entire contents of her stomach onto the grass beneath it.

Rex and Dess were out of the car before you could say 'huh?' and Jonathon and Jess looked about ready to follow suit. Rex was by her side in an instant sweeping back her hair as she continued to throw up, Dess looking on in silent concern.

Once Melissa was sure she wasn't going to be sick all over her friend's shoes she straitened up, eyes locked on the sign in front of her as if staring at Satan himself. After a pause Rex reached out and touched her arm hesitantly, turning her around to face him. She could now see the full extent of her friends' concern and was surprised at how much she saw. Rex she would expect it from but Dess? She'd always thought that Dess had been on the verge of hating her the entire time they'd known each other. But here she was looking at Melissa with an expression so worried that it nearly threw the mindcaster off her feet. She knew that the main cause for their worry was that they knew it wasn't car sickness that made her puke but the town. Not only because they knew Melissa didn't get carsick but because of the way she was eyeing the town that they were metres away from entering.

"You OK, Cowgirl?" Rex asked for the second time that day.

Melissa nodded wordlessly, not trusting her voice enough to speak just yet. She wanted so desperately to lean into either one of their ready arms but stopped herself – she wasn't prepared to reveal that much weakness to them, or to herself. She could feel the anxiety seeping off of them and had to look away. She wasn't used to that much concern for her and didn't know whether she liked it or hated it.

Rex eyed her carefully, noting the way she eyed the town of Sunnydale. "We'll stay the night with Jess's aunt and if it's still this bad by tomorrow we'll head back," he told her reassuringly.

Melissa expected Dess to protest but instead the polymath nodded in agreement still looking her over in concern. The mindcaster nodded before making her way slowly back to the car, her mind a chaotic mess.

...

_A/N: What'd yah think? Love reviews so please, please post them._

_The languages that Melissa is speaking – well, thinking – are Indonesian and French, just in case anyone was wondering. Oh, and I'm not all that certain whether Melissa has a cassette player or an MP3, I think it's the first but oh well, in this book it's an MP3. It's not that major a detail. This is my first Midnighter fic too so I hope I didn't get too out of character. If I did or do later on please tell me._

**Next: Buffy and the Midnighters finally meet, glares are exchanged and Rex finds something out from the young mindcaster.**


	2. Meet the Summers

_**Meet the Summers**_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Midnighters or Buffy the Vampire Slayer; they are the wonderful work of Scott Westerfeld and Joss Whedon. _

_A/N: Right, I just thought I'd say, in case anyone was wondering, in this story Bixby High is having a four week school holiday at the moment. Sunnydale High on the other hand is not. Now, I know that's not true since a week after the Snake Pit they were still in school and that's pretty much when this is set. But just let it slide this once OK, I need it for this story to work. Not like it's really that big a deal anyway._

Rex pulled the car to a stop outside Jessica's aunt's home, glancing over at Melissa for the thousandth time after the event at the entrance of Sunnydale. She was trembling uncontrollably, her eyes shut to the world as she sang along softly to the music blasting through her headphones. The volume was so loud that he could make out every word from where he was sitting. He could tell that the town was hurting her beyond belief and his heart twisted at the thought that he was allowing it to happen. She'd just been sick because of it for heaven's sake. He couldn't stand it, the agony he saw in her eyes. It was worse than any day at school, worse than any encounter with a darkling.

Melissa's eyes flickered towards the house's door as if it were some strange abomination. And to her it probably was, they were about to meet one of the town's inhabitants. The town that Melissa had so unmercifully dubbed evil. And with all the cemeteries they'd seen on the way over he couldn't exactly find the will to disagree with her.

Jessica and Jonathon had already gotten out of the car and were making their way over to the house. Dess followed hesitantly behind, glancing worriedly back at Melissa as she did so. Rex had never seen her show that much concern for the mindcaster before. But despite this he could hardly be surprised that seeing Melissa like that – one of the most helpless he'd ever seen her – had hit them both like a punch in the stomach.

"Ten bucks Jessica's aunt is either: evil, insane or really weird," Melissa said, breaking the silence that had overtaken the car.

"How about giving her the benefit of the doubt?" he asked with an amused smile.

She snorted. "In this town I'm willing to bet that could get you killed."

He shook his head and exited the car, Melissa following suit. He noted that she was still a little unsteady on her feet and clearly still shaken despite her playful banter. He could see her nose wrinkle up in distaste as they neared the door and he wondered what it was she was tasting from the house and its occupants.

Suddenly the door was slammed open and a petite blonde girl came running out, wrapping her arms around Jess's frame. "It's so good to see you."

"You too," Jessica gasped as the girl's arms tightened around her frame.

Rex glanced over at Melissa and saw her looking at the blonde with an odd expression on her face. As if she was unsure what to make of her.

"These are my friends," Jessica told the girl pulling away.

"Let's not exaggerate," Melissa muttered, receiving a raised eyebrow from who he guessed was Jess's cousin.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Don't mind her; she's just in a mood."

"Compared to her actual mood? I'm not seeing much of a difference," Jonathon commented.

"Shut it, Flyboy," the mindcaster snapped.

Normally Rex wouldn't have minded that much if Melissa got into a fight with anybody –especially Martinez – but he knew when her temper was near breaking point. And that time was now.

"Guys knock it off," he said. "Let's at least try to make a good impression."

"Whatever," Melissa said walking past the group and entering the house without an invitation. The blonde watched her go in disbelief while Rex just shook his head, unable to keep an amused smile from his face.

"Wow, she normally so polite?" Jess's cousin finally asked.

"You have no idea," Jessica told her as the two made their way into the house.

Rex frowned, he knew Jess didn't exactly like Melissa and vice versa but did she have to be so obvious about it?

...

He found Melissa in the company of a middle-aged woman with blonde looking more than a little uncomfortable.

"Are you sure you're OK, Dear?" the woman asked, eyeing Melissa with concern. "You're looking a little pasty."

"I'm fine," the mindcaster replied. "Just a little bit of a headache."

"Well, if you're sure," she replied uncertainly, before saying, "have you seen Buffy and my niece anywhere?"She asked, looking around the room as if suddenly expecting them to appear.

Melissa shrugged. "They're off doing some lame-o catching up thing-y. Should be inside soon."

The woman looked the brunette over with slight confusion. "OK, then. So, how do you know my niece?"

Melissa shrugged. "Loverboy's fault."

Rex walked completely into the room. "You say that like it's bad thing," he said with a teasing grin.

"You saying that it isn't?"

He rolled his eyes. "Why would it be?"

"I don't like her."

"You don't like anybody," Rex pointed out, noting Jess's aunt's bewildered expression.

"True," she replied with a shrug.

"Don't even try to understand her," Rex informed the woman.

"Um, yes, well. I'm Joyce Summers, Jessica's aunt," she replied holding out a hand for him to shake.

"Rex Greene," he said, shaking it. "And you've already met Melissa."

Mrs Summers nodded; eyeing Melissa as if she were some bomb about to go off any second. Rex had a nagging feeling that she might just be right. Despite her easy talk he could tell she was still completely shaken and the tiredness in her eyes did nothing to ease his worries. She actually looked like she was going to pass out then and there. _God, she looked so fragile_.

The mindcaster shot him a look, clearly hearing his thoughts. _Damn_, _gotta work on that._

"Hey, Mrs Summers, do you have any where we can rest for a bit? The ride over wasn't exactly what you'd call a day at _Disneyland_," he said suddenly. By the look on Melissa's face she knew he wasn't getting the resting for himself.

"Of course, there's a spare room upstairs. Do you want me to show you?"

Rex shook his head. "No, I think we'll be OK."

The seer took Melissa's gloved hand and steered her out of the kitchen and up the stairs, all the while ignoring her well aimed glares. _She sure is scary when she wants to be_. Her scowl deepened at that and he had to wonder where all his privacy had gone.

"It'll come back when you stop looking at me like I'm some fragile twig that'll snap in the wind," she told him through gritted teeth, a sure sign that she was pissed.

As they reached the door Rex noticed the way she was cringing, the same way she usually did whilst at school. Surely the Summers household couldn't be that bad, though deep down he knew that it wasn't the house that was causing Melissa pain.

"I'm not in pain," she snapped, wrenching the door open.

"Could you stop doing that?" he asked, following her as she entered the room.

She shot him a look and Rex immediately knew he'd said the wrong thing. "If I could I would've years ago. Don't act like this is a choice I have Rex, 'cause you know just as well as I that it isn't."

The underlying pain in her words cut him like a knife and he resisted the strong urge to touch her and instead glanced over at the double bed.

"What are we going to do about this?" he asked, scratching the back of his head thoughtfully. "I can take the floor if you want?"

He expected her to protest and say something about not being tired and how he didn't have to look after her. But instead she just nodded and went over to the cupboard on the far wall. She opened it up and rummaged inside and Rex had to wonder whether it was impolite to look around in someone's cupboard without their permission. Moments later she returned to his side, a bundle of blankets in her hands that he noticed with unease were still trembling. Heading over to the right side of the bed she set them down on the floor, arranging them in a way that sort of resembled a bed. Grabbing a spare pillow from the actual bed she set it down as well before climbing into her own bed without a word.

Frowning he slid into his makeshift bed, making sure that the position that he was in faced her. "So, what did you pick out of Buffy and Mrs Summers's heads?"

Melissa's nose wrinkled up in distaste. "The Buffy chick's a pure basket case. She kept thinking about going to see some guy named Giles to find out whether I was some kind of demon or somethin'." Rex raised his eyebrow at that and the mindcaster graced him with a small smile. "Like I said: 'Pure basket case.' She tasted weird too, kind of like a mix between a darkling, a cheerleader and . . . something else. Not really sure what. She was definitely powerful, and she knew it."

"Do you think she's another Midnighter?"

Melissa shook her head. "No. Something else, something none of us has ever encountered before."

Rex frowned at that, wondering what in the world the blonde girl could be. "And Mrs Summers?"

The brunette shrugged. "Not much to say; she kept thinking I needed a strong parental figure in my life though," she said, her lips twisting into an amused smirk.

Rex chuckled at that. "Don't we all?"

She sighed and rubbed her temples, pausing to pull out her headphones and place them in her ears.

"Are you OK?" he asked, looking at her in concern.

"You know, that's the third time you've asked me that today."

"Yeah well, I'm still waiting for an honest answer, and you know what they say about third time being the charm."

She sighed, finally relenting. "This place is worse than Bixby, and it's four times smaller. Everyone's thoughts and emotions are in utter chaos, it's absolutely mind-blowing. And almost everyone has death and pain on their minds," she cringed, remembering some of the thoughts she'd heard on their way through the streets of Sunnydale, "even kids. And it's not just the people, it's the place. The actual place, not the memories and emotions people have left on the place but the place itself. It's strange; I don't think I've ever felt something from a place before that wasn't left over by some living thing. Passing the high school was the worst, I felt as if my head was about to explode . . . It was evil, Rex, pure, undiluted evil. I can't even begin to describe it."

Rex nodded; he'd noticed how she'd broken out in a cold sweat when they'd passed the high school in the car, her hands gripping her seat so hard that she tore holes in the fabric. He'd been meaning to ask her about it but had never gotten around to it.

Melissa suddenly let out a humourless laugh. "And you know what the worst thing is? All my life I've held this small fantasy that one day if I left Bixby I'd leave my mindcasting powers along with it. Now I've finally done that – even if it's just for a little while – and it's worse." She shook her head. "It's foolish, I know, and I tried not to but I always held onto this strange hope that I'd one day get away from this curse."

Rex's heart constricted, until now he'd never known how much she truly hated her talent. "Not foolish, just human." Without even thinking it through he climbed out of his makeshift bed and crawled in beside her, careful not to touch any of her exposed skin. She flinched in surprise and for about a minute just lay there stock-still clearly debating whether or not to let him stay beside her.

After a pause she reached out and grabbed his hand, her fingers circling around his in a vice-like grip. She hesitated a moment before snuggling deeper into his side, arranging her head so it rested on his chest.

He didn't move just held her as she slowly drifted off to sleep, drawing comfort from his still form. He glanced over at the clock noting that it was only a quarter to six. They'd probably be missing out on dinner that night because unless she woke up on her own there was no way he was going to disturb her. Closing his eyes he listened to the music drifting quietly out of Melissa's headphones. It was then he realized that a part of him had been hoping for the same thing she had and the disappointment tore at his insides like a rabid dog.

_A/N: Come on people, please review. Even if it's just to point out something that I did wrong with this chapter (cause than I'll know how to improve things) and I really do love getting reviews._

_Oh, and I'm sorry if Jessica seemed to come off a bit mean in this chapter, that wasn't really my intention at all. Just, if she had to choose between her cousin and Melissa – who hasn't made any effort to hide her dislike for her – who would she choose? I think she'd go with her cousin but that's just my opinion. Anyway, if you like the character of Jessica rest assured I am not trying to make her out to be a big bitch._

Next: Dess and Jonathon get into a small fight with Buffy Summers while Rex and Melissa sleep in a state of total oblivion upstairs.


	3. Weird Day

**Weird Day**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Midnighters or Buffy the Vampire Slayer; they are the wonderful work of Scott Westerfeld and Joss Whedon. _

Dess frowned; she'd been sitting in the lounge room with the other Midnighters and Buffy getting to know each other for the past half-hour and Rex and Melissa still hadn't turned up. She couldn't explain the alarm and concern she'd felt when the mindcaster had ordered the car to a stop and thrown up all over the grass resting at the bottom of the Sunnydale sign. Or the gnawing anxiety she was feeling now. She'd always thought her relationship with Melissa had been pretty plain and simple – they were both in it for the convenience, friendship had nothing to do with it. But now, seeing Melissa like that, she couldn't be so sure anymore. Maybe it was impossible to have a relationship with someone that didn't involve searing hatred and not learn to care about them, at least a little bit.

Whatever the reason, the fact remained that something about this town had freaked Melissa out, and not just a little bit.

Concern for her friend had her chewing her nails within moments and 62 seconds later she was on her feet. Without a word she left the room, intent on finding her two oldest friends.

Hearing a sound coming from the kitchen she made her way towards it hoping to find Rex and Melissa in there helping themselves to some food. Instead she found a middle-aged woman – Buffy's mum, she guessed – preparing dinner.

"Oh hello, you must be another one of Jessica's friends," she said, glancing up from her work. "I'm Joyce Summers."

"Dess," the polymath replied. "Hey, you wouldn't have happened to see a guy with glasses called Rex and an impolite girl by the name of Melissa would've you?"

Mrs Summers smiled warmly at her. "They're resting in the spare room upstairs. I was just about to go check on them and bring up some aspirin for Melissa."

"Aspirin?"

"Mm, she said something about having a headache. Looked like a terrible one too."

"Oh," Dess said, wondering whether aspirin would help with one of Melissa's mindcasting headaches. She'd never thought to ask about it before. "I'll take it up to her if you want."

Joyce smiled and handed her a packet of aspirin and a glass of water. "That would be lovely, dear."

Dess smiled too and exited the room, making her way up the stairs. After a few moments of searching she found the door she suspected was the entrance to the spare room and slowly opened 

it, careful not to make too much noise. The sight that greeted her was enough to make a soft smile appear on her face.

Snuggled closely together on the bed were Melissa and Rex, the mindcaster's headphones still firmly in place and rattling off a tune. The polymath couldn't help but think about how content they looked lying there like that, Melissa's head resting on the seer's chest.

After a moment of silent ogling Dess hesitantly made her way forward, pausing at the bedside table and placing the aspirin and the glass of water on top of it. She was half-tempted to take the headphones out of Melissa's ears, knowing how much damage they could do to them, but decided against it, not wanting to wake her. Besides, one night wasn't going to do much good when Melissa had been going to sleep listening to music ever since she was a kid. Not to mention all the listening she did during the day too.

So with that in mind she slowly backed out of the room, closing the door behind her as she went. They'd probably miss out on dinner that night but for the nearly-there-peace she had just seen on the brunette's face she knew both her and Rex would agree that it was worth the price.

Making her way back down the stairs she once again began to contemplate her strange mixed feelings towards the young mindcaster. Very mixed feelings.

On any normal day of the week Dess hated Melissa, or at least strongly disliked her. After all, the girl was the goddess of bitches. Yet here she was: not only pitying the major bitch but worrying about her too, which just didn't make sense. She'd seen Melissa in pain before – granted not this much pain. Then again, maybe it wasn't so much that Melissa was in pain but that Dess was partly responsible for that pain, along with everyone else. They could've chosen any place for a holiday and they had chosen here, a place that was hurting the mindcaster terribly, and even so they hadn't left once this knowledge had been unearthed. Not only that but the Midnighters had spent the past week trying to convince Melissa to come along, well Rex was doing most of the convincing. Quite frankly Dess hadn't cared much whether she or not but she had wanted Rex to come and if Melissa didn't go neither did he. The polymath still didn't understand Melissa's reluctance to leave Bixby, all the while the mindcaster had looked and acted like she was about to have some precious dream snatched away from her. Extremely baffling but in the half-crazed girl's mind probably true.

Dess frowned; it was common of her to think of Melissa as a complete nutcase. But in a way it was only meant as in insult inside her head never really thinking it to be true. Thinking back now though, there were certain times when Melissa had actually seemed crazy and Dess wondered how frail her sanity really was and how tough a nudge would knock her over the edge.

Her lips twisted into a scowl at the thought.

"Hey, Dess, you OK?" Jonathon asked from his place next to Jessica on the couch. "You look like someone just stole your maths book."

The polymath glanced up in slight surprise; she'd made it to the lounge room without even noticing it. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Have you seen Rex and Melissa?"

Dess nodded, she'd been beginning to think the others had completely forgotten about the duo. "They're asleep upstairs."

Buffy looked at her in surprise. "Asleep? It's six o'clock."

She shrugged and took a seat on Jessica's other side. "It was a tough ride over."

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "It's six o'clock," she repeated as if those words alone would let her win what was surely going to become a fight soon.

"Melissa's drained," Des said as if _those_ words alone would let her win.

Buffy's eyebrow nearly reached her hairline. "Really? Didn't look it. In fact she looked just like Cordelia after a crappy day."

Dess didn't know who Cordelia was but she definitely knew it was an insult. "You don't know her, OK? So why don't you just back off." The entire room looked at her as if she had suddenly grown an extra head. She herself was shocked by her sudden burst of words in Melissa's defence. _This day just kept getting weirder and weirder_.

Buffy rolled her eyes, finally recovering from her shock. "Whatever. All I'm saying is she could've been a bit nicer."

Dess doubted that being nice to Buffy Summers was on the top of Melissa's list of priorities at the moment. In fact, the only thing the mindcaster was probably concerned about was how to keep her head from exploding whilst in Sunnydale. To everyone's surprise it was Jonathon who jumped to the mindcaster's defence this time (figuratively speaking of course.)

"And all Dess is saying is that you have to learn the world does not revolve around you. It does not in fact end when someone doesn't treat you like a goddess, quite the opposite really. And until you know Melissa and what she's been through and what she's going through I don't think you reserve the right to judge." His voice was calm but there was a definite underline of malice.

Shock was mirrored across everyone's faces, especially Jessica's. Dess for her part just plain didn't get it. Jonathon barely even knew Melissa himself, in fact, they were barely ever seen in the same room together. So why the hell was he defending her?

Recognition washed over her and Dess nearly kicked herself for not noticing earlier. Jonathon had touched Melissa. When they were at the Snake Pit last week he'd had to touch her to get her and Rex out of danger.

The polymath remembered Rex once telling her about the time he'd accidently touched Melissa when they were kids. Apparently, it hadn't been a happy experience. For either of them. Something about feeling the mindcaster's emotions and Melissa feeling his at an even stronger frequency.

She glanced over at Jonathon. Over the past week the acrobat had been looking at Melissa with a rather odd expression. Dess now recognised what it was – pity.

She swallowed, tasting something like bile in her mouth. What had Jonathon felt? Or seen – or heard – or whatever you wanted to call it. Icy tendrils gripped at her heart; what had been so bad to make 

Jonathon _and_ Rex act so differently afterwards. One thing was for sure: Dess was never going to let Melissa touch her, ever.

Jessica cleared her throat, clearly uncomfortable with the stretching silence. "When's dinner going to be ready?"

"It's usually ready at about a quarter to six," Buffy told her, clearly a little shaken by Jonathon's sudden outburst.

"Do you think we should wake them up when it is?" the redhead asked hesitantly. There was no need to ask who 'them' were.

Dess shook her head immediately. "No. I don't think that's such a great idea . . . That is if you value your life." She certainly did – Rex and Melissa hated being woken up. Rex because, well, he was a teenager – enough said – and Melissa because it meant waking up to the mind-blowing havoc of everyone else's minds. In Sunnydale it would probably be a lot worse. Plus, Dess didn't particularly want to disturb them from their peaceful slumber, not when they looked so cute.

"But they'll miss out on dinner," Jessica said, pointing out the obvious.

Dess raised an eyebrow. "Your point? They'd much rather stay asleep than wake up to a cacophony and have something to eat. Well, Melissa would anyway. And Rex looked quite happy where he was," she said, her mouth twisting into a smirk at the end. She had a nagging feeling that there was more than just friendship between the two Midnighters.

"Why would they wake up to a cacophony?" Buffy asked.

The polymath sighed and leant back in her seat, the heels of her hands pressing into her eye sockets as she felt the beginnings of a headache. _This was getting to be a really long day _– There was suddenly a scream from upstairs – _a really, really long day_.

_A/N: Thanks for the review._

_I know I said a very similar thing last chapter about Jessica but if you're a Buffy the Vampire Slayer watcher this is not a Buffy bashing fic. I really don't have much against the character other than I think she's a little bit self-righteous but that's just my opinion. Anyway, she will get better, trust promise._

_Please review._

**Next: Melissa has something invade her dream and Dess breaks a promise to herself. **


	4. Nightmare

_Disclaimer: I do not own Midnighters or Buffy the Vampire Slayer; they are the wonderful work of Scott Westerfeld and Joss Whedon. _

_A/N: this chapter's a bit horror-y, didn't mean it to be though, really. Honest. Just sorta turned out that way. Anyway thanks for the review._

**Nightmare**

...

_Melissa glanced frantically around the room – no, the cave – she was in. Blood camouflaged the walls, never leaving more than a centimetre of brown rock-wall free from its horrible clutches. The sight chilled her to the bone and she bit her lip – hard – to stop herself from letting out a scream. Her entire body ached as if someone had repeatedly beaten her over with a hammer and she was pretty sure she was bleeding from a cut on her forehead. __**Where the hell am I?**_

_**Wherever I want you to be**__, replied a voice in her head. It sounded cold and sickly sweet, a sound that caused Melissa to shudder. This was just getting a little too freaky for her._

_**And who the hell are you?**_

_**A nightmare, a monster, anything you don't want me to be.**_

_She frowned, wondering what in the world was going on. __**What do you want? **__The question tasted wrong on her tongue, and she realized immediately how horror-movie-like it sounded._

_**You. I want you.**_

_**Um, sorry, I don't even know you. And even if I did I don't exactly go on dates, especially with voices inside my head**__, she bit off, wanting desperately to leave wherever this was._

_The voice ignored her. __**I want to see you bleed. To scream in agony whilst writhing on the floor, till it's painted crimson with your life. Oh, what a pretty picture. Oh, how I'll dance.**_

_Melissa shuddered; something about the singsong voice terrified her beyond belief. And that was without the horrifying words. __**Well, you're not getting what you want.**_

_**Oh, but I am. Oh, but I am**__. the last sentence rose higher than the last and it sent a chill down her spine. __**Now. **__It was said so suddenly and coldly that Melissa had no time to react when a shadowy figure pounced on her out of the darkness. She let out a gasp of pain as razor sharp claws grazed her side and needle-like teeth pierced her neck. __**I will show you pain you never even dreamed of.**_

_Melissa let out a scream as the teeth sunk deeper into her neck and something burned her side. A pain started emanating from her gut as though something had suddenly stabbed her. Tears sprung to her eyes and she knew immediately that he was right – he was going to get what he wanted. She could feel blood seeping out from beneath her writhing, screaming form and knew he was right. The thought cut her like a knife as she sank deeper into agony._

...

Dess frowned as she raced up the stairs, the screaming growing even louder with every step. Jessica, Jonathon and Buffy were trailing along behind her and she was pretty sure Mrs Summers had paused in her cooking at the unexpected outburst. Dess didn't have to be a mindcaster to know who was screaming and neither did anyone else. The scream was undoubtedly feminine and there was only one other female in the house who remained unaccounted for. Her stomach twisted in worry; what could be so bad to make Melissa scream like that?

...

Rex tried desperately to hold down Melissa's flailing arms. He'd been awoken by the mindcaster's screams a couple of minutes ago and had since been unable to wake her. Shouting and nudging were of no help and he was debating the unappealing thought of whether he should slap her or not.

"Melissa! Wake up!" he shouted, deciding to continue with shouting for the moment. "It's just a dream!"

As expected this had little effect and the brunette continued to writhe in untold pain beneath him. Before he could try anything else the door slammed open and Dess burst in, marching purposefully towards them. Barely sparing him a glance she pushed him aside and, to his astonishment, sent a stinging slap to the side of Melissa's face. He saw the polymath cringe as bare skin met bare skin and she withdrew her hand quickly. Still, although drastic as it was, the action seemed to work and Melissa's eyes sprang open. For a few dragging seconds she lay there, stock still staring unseeingly at the ceiling.

"Get out," she said finally, her voice quiet but firm.

Rex and Dess stared across at each other unsure of what to do.

"Get out!"

The two Midnighters hastily left the room, shrinking under the harshness of the mindcaster's tone. Rex slammed the door shut and leant against it with a sigh. On the other side he could hear a scream muffled by some sort of object; a fist? A pillow? He didn't know. Next came the sobs. Icy talons gripped his heart at the sound of them and the urge to bring her into his arms was growing almost too strong to bear.

Glancing up he nearly jumped out of his skin when he met the concerned faces of Jessica, Jonathon and Buffy staring back at him. He could hear Mrs Summers coming up the stairs too, her rushed footsteps faltering every now and again. He heard a noise behind him and saw Dess walk off, face ashen and blank. It would take a while for her to get over touching Melissa; that he knew.

In a poor attempt to distract himself he looked down at his watch: 6:27. They hadn't slept for long, not nearly enough for Melissa's tired body. And it would be pretty impossible to get her to sleep now, not after whatever nightmare she'd just had.

He caught sight of Mrs Summers hurrying towards them and locked eyes with her.

"What happened?" she asked.

Rex shrugged. "Nightmare." It was such a simple word, so simple in fact that he found it inadequate to describe what had just happened. But it was the only word he could manage at the moment, the only word he could manage with Melissa's sobs in the background. He could tell that it didn't really satisfy her but after a pause she nodded, her face soft.

"Dinners almost ready. Does anyone want some hot chocolate?"

Everyone nodded; more because it was something to do than because they actually wanted one.

"Melissa will just have some warm milk though, she doesn't like hot chocolate," Rex told her, giving away how much this was actually effecting him by using Melissa's real name. He didn't know whether he'd be able to get her down stairs for a glass of milk but he'd try anyway. He knew how bad it was for her to stay cramped up in a dark room too long – it messed a heap with her sanity.

After a pause he nodded in goodbye at the silent group before gently pushing his way back into the room, intent on helping Melissa now that he'd given her a few minutes to calm down.

_A/N: What'd you think? Reviews are much appreciated._

_**NEXT: Dess and Jonathon have a little chat and Rex confronts Melissa.**_


	5. Picking Up The Pieces

_Disclaimer: I do not own Midnighters or Buffy the Vampire Slayer; they are the wonderful work of Scott Westerfeld and Joss Whedon. _

_A/N: Thanks for the reviews, love to read them._

_I don't know whether I made Melissa appear more vulnerable than she actually would be last chapter and I debated over how to do it a lot. I think I made her just vulnerable enough; after all, she is human and can't be expected to remain stony-face all the time. Anyway, let me know what you think on the subject if you could._

...

**Picking Up The Peaces**

Dess walked down the stairs and to the kitchen in a daze, her mind a swirling chaotic mass of thoughts. She'd have to stay away from Melissa for a while in order not to give the young mindcaster too much of a headache. _Melissa_. She couldn't believe she'd touched her, even if it had been for only a second. That second had still been long enough to get a mass of horrifying emotions from the mindcaster's mind transported right on into her own. Dess shuddered at the memory. She'd felt Melissa's pain and isolation that being a mindcaster had caused her over the years. The depression and the utter fear of the human touch and how much that had cost her sanity. She'd even been able to get the gist of Melissa's dream, well, at least the emotions she felt throughout it: fear, confusion and, above all, pain.

Dess couldn't believe it – all in a matter of minutes she'd both made a promise to herself and torn it to pieces, _and_ Melissa had become a broken wreck. Yep, the mindcaster definitely had the right idea when she called this place evil – it was seriously messing with the order of things.

With a sigh she opened the door in the kitchen, seeking some alone time from the rest of the house's occupants to think. As she climbed the staircase down from the door she found herself in a rather OK – if dark – looking basement. At the opposite wall was a cot and she hesitantly walked towards it, taking a seat on the hardened mattress. Buffy had said that someone would be sleeping down here tonight, while someone else slept on the couch and another person slept in Buffy's bed with her. It was already pretty clear who got the spare room.

The polymath jumped at the sound of the stairs creaking and looked up in surprise. "Damn, Flyboy, ever heard of knocking?"

Jonathon raised an eyebrow at her. "The door was wide open."

"Oh," Dess said lamely, she was so sure she'd closed it behind her.

"That was pretty intense stuff upstairs, you OK?"

"Sure, fine."

The acrobat nodded and made his way down the stairs, pausing at the foot of the cot. He gazed at her intently, his eyes searching every crevice of her expression and for a moment Dess almost forgot that it was Melissa who was actually the mindcaster and not Jonathon.

"You touched her." It wasn't a question but she still felt inclined to answer it anyway.

"Yeah."

"It hurts," he noted taking a seat beside her. "to know just how much our friends suffer each day."

Dess frowned. "Melissa's not my–," but she suddenly stopped herself. Wasn't she? Sure the two didn't get along all that well but they definitely cared about each other, so that had to account to some sort of friendship. "You guys are friends?" she asked sceptically instead.

He shrugged. "Well, we're not enemies that's for sure. The point is: when you see someone you care about hurting and know you can't do a damn thing about it, it hurts . . . You saw some of what was in Melissa's head, Dess, and as much as you'd like it to that's not going to go away."

"Really?" she asked, disappointedly. "What do I do then? Ignore it?"

Jonathon shrugged. "Pretty much. Remember, Dess, as much as it's hurting you right now it's hurting her a whole lot more. And besides, I don't think she'll be too thrilled with the idea of you rummaging around in her head."

_Ok, this was a new side to Flyboy. Since when did he get all wise and stuff? Weird. Sunnydale was so messing with us. _

Dess scowled. "I didn't mean to, I was just trying to slap her."

Jonathon's eyebrows nearly reached his hairline. "Not really seeing the better."

"Come on, like you've never wanted to slap the bitch goddess?"

The acrobat just smiled.

...

Rex entered the room cautiously, knowing that he hadn't exactly been invited in yet. Somehow, during the time he and everyone else had waited outside, Melissa had both broken down and composed herself. She sat in the same position he'd left her, gulping down a glass of water and some aspirin that Rex was sure hadn't been there when they first arrived. Looking at her now, you wouldn't have thought she'd just had a nightmare and been crying her eyes out ever since.

Hesitantly he made his way towards the bed and took a seat beside her, Melissa ignored him. With a sigh he reached out and took her hand. She didn't pull away but she didn't respond either. Her gloved hand felt rough in his palm and the urge to remove the black covering grew stronger and stronger by the second.

"Don't even think about it, Loverboy," Melissa warned him, her voice cool and collected.

Rex frowned thoughtfully; it was a new nickname she'd taken to calling him recently and quite frankly he rather liked it. Although, where the name had suddenly arisen from was a mystery to him. At least she was talking to him.

"You look better," he noted, caressing her hand softly

Melissa smiled sardonically. "I bet I do."

Rex's frown deepened. "What was your dream about?"

She shrugged, leaning over him to place the empty glass back on the bedside table. "Nothing important."

"Sure, and that's why you were screaming your head off earlier," he said sarcastically before turning to look the mindcaster dead in the eye. "If you don't want to talk about it say so, but don't sit there lying to me about how it was nothing."

Melissa flinched slightly at the tone of his voice and he felt a small twinge of guilt. But it was quickly washed away when he remembered that this was probably the only way to get through to her.

"Then . . ." she finally said, letting out a sigh. "I don't want to talk about it."

"OK." Rex nodded, excepting her decision. "Do you want to go downstairs? Dinner should be ready soon."

"Yeah, sure."

Despite her words he could tell that she wasn't too keen on the idea and he glanced over at the clock, checking the time. "We probably have about ten minutes before we have to go down. We can wait up here until then if you want?"

Melissa smiled gratefully at him, leaning into his side. Rex was careful not to touch any of her skin as he draped his other arm around her, bringing her gently to his chest.

"We'll leave tomorrow," he told her, receiving a confused look. "I said that if it's still bad when we got here than we'd leave, and it is."

But Melissa just shook her head. "We can't."

"Why not?"

"Because it won't let us," she replied, burying her head deeper into his chest.

"What won't let us?" he asked, now thoroughly confused.

She shook her head. "I don't know . . . but it's out there – I can taste it – and it doesn't want us to leave," she whispered.

Rex frowned mulling that over, his arms tightening around her small form. He knew she was trying to distract him from her dream, and it had worked. _What could possibly be out there in the town of Sunnydale, and why didn't it want us to leave? Was it a darkling?_ He smiled at his foolishness. _Of course it was a darkling – what else could it be? Still, why hadn't Cowgirl recognised it as a darkling?_ Rex frowned again. _Could it possibly be something else? Something they'd never encountered before? Something even the lore hadn't encountered before? _

The idea was completely ridiculous, but still it hovered there at the back of his mind.

_A/N: So, what'd yah think? Come, review, and let me know._

_**Next: It's dinner time at the Summers House and two people aren't making it an easy event. Also two more characters are introduced.**_


	6. Dinner or War

_Disclaimer: I do not own Midnighters or Buffy the Vampire Slayer; they are the wonderful work of Scott Westerfeld and Joss Whedon. _

...

**Dinner or War**

Melissa made her way down the stairs, Rex clinging closely to her side. She appeared calm and composed though deep within raged a storm of mixed emotions, thoughts and tastes. The mindcaster had never thought she'd miss Bixby high school ever in her life, but in a town like Sunnydale it might just be a better escape. She grimaced, that thought was almost as frightening as the dream she'd had earlier.

Rex of course wasn't helping the chaos within her mind at all, in fact, if anything, he was probably making it worse. Inside his usually calm and well collected mind was a storm of thoughts and emotions so sharp that every new one that appeared was like a punch to her stomach.

Concern seemed to be at the top of his list – concern for _her_. Concern tied up in pity, also for her. The emotion tasted bitter in her mouth and she had to restrain herself from slapping it out of him. She'd much rather him angry at her, like Dess, who always seemed to find something about her to be pissed off about, than feel his unrelenting pity. Anger she could deal with, anger she could understand, but pity she hated. Hated it for making her feel weaker than she already felt.

Pity was something she'd been getting off Flyboy in the bucket loads lately, ever since she'd touched him.

But as much as she wanted Rex to be angry with her at the moment she just couldn't see how to make it happen. The guy's head was so filled with soft, warm, fuzzy feelings for her that she could probably commit a murder and he still wouldn't lose his temper.

With a sigh the mindcaster succumbed to the fact that she'd just have to put up with his pity and concern for the moment. Now, when it came to someone else, that was an entirely different story. Dess, for example, had broken her number one rule: 'No Touching the Mindcaster.' Of course, Melissa would let it slide just this once since the polymath's mind entering her own, even for a split second, _had_ torn her out of her nightmare. She just hoped that Dess had enough sense to forget anything had ever happened.

Melissa turned her attention back to Rex. Among the concern and pity was the faint taste of fear and even stronger ones of confusion and guilt – whatever the last one was for was beyond her. Sometimes he just flat out confused her.

She sighed as they made their way into the kitchen, wondering whether she'd ever be able to touch him without it ending badly. _Huh, where did that one come from_?

"Ah, you're up," Mrs Summers greeted as they took a seat at the table, wedging themselves between Dess and Jessica. Melissa frowned, seated next to the flame-bringers cousin – what was her name? Bunny? – were two people she was quite sure she'd never met before. One was a redheaded girl with green eyes who sat on the blonde's left side and the other was a brunette boy who sat on 

her right. The three of them were whispering secretively between each other and the mindcaster had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

Melissa just nodded in greeting at the woman and looked down at her plate of food; it looked edible. In fact, it was probably the most edible thing she'd had in a long time.

Buffy and the two strangers broke away from their whispering and turned to face her and Rex.

"This is the newest version of Cordelia I told you guys about," Buffy said suddenly.

"Buffy!" Mrs Summers scolded whilst handing a cup of warm milk to Melissa. _Huh, wonder how she knew I didn't like hot chocolate? After all, everyone else seems to have it._

Buffy's friends seemed to be taken aback by the blonde's announcement as well.

"No way, she looks too innocent," the boy said, looking at the mindcaster in astonishment.

Dess rolled her in disbelief and Rex grinned in amusement.

"Xander, that there is Cordelia reincarnated," Buffy said firmly, receiving an aghast look from her mother.

The redhead and Xander shared a doubtful look.

Melissa smirked. "Hey, Bunny, could you pass the gravy?"

The blonde flushed in rage. "My name's not Bunny!"

"Oh, sorry, could you pass the gravy then, Buddy," she replied innocently.

Rex groaned in his seat, knowing perfectly well that once Melissa got started up there was no stopping her.

"Buffy!" the blonde hissed.

"Butty?"

Everyone at the table watched the exchange, unsure of what to do.

"Buffy!"

"Oh, Bloody," Melissa said with mock realization. "Peculiar name, don't you think?"

"It's Buffy, Goth Queen," the blonde snarled.

The mindcaster smirked, happy with how riled up she was getting the other girl. "Bunzy Goth Queen, now that is a strange name."

Buffy growled. "What the hell's your problem?"

Melissa's eyes widened innocently. "My problem? I don't have a problem. In fact, I think you're the one with the problem, after all, I'm not the one with a shocking loser/cheerleader complex."

"How dare you!"

"How dare I? What? Am I supposed to quake in my shoes at the mere sight of you? Bow down in untold worship when you enter a room? You know, I would, but gosh, I actually have enough brain cells to tell me you're not the centre of the world."

Everyone's jaws dropped and Buffy looked as if she was about to tear the brunette's head off right that second.

"I never said I was the centre of the world," the blonde ground out.

"Nope, but you were sure as hell thinking it," Melissa replied in a nonchalant tone, positively unbothered by the other girl's warning tone.

"Right-y-oh," Xander said, rubbing his hands together with false enthusiasm when it looked as though Buffy was about to become a wanted murder. "Let's not hurt the nice girl, Buffy," he said, as though he were standing in-between two rabid animals who were about to tear each other limb from limb. Which, when you thought about it, probably wasn't that far from the truth.

Dess snorted into her cup of hot chocolate and Jonathon grinned widely. Beside Melissa, Jessica was looking thoroughly embarrassed by the conflict going on between her cousin and almost-friend while Rex just buried his head in his hands, clearly exasperated.

After a pause Buffy backed down from the smirking Melissa, still glaring daggers at her none the less.

"Yes, well, let's not let the food get cold," Mrs Summers said, clearly as an attempt to gain some sort of order into the room once more.

"Melissa, Rex: You weren't here when everyone was introduced. These are Buffy's friends from school: Willow and Xander," she told them, once the room seemed to be under control once more, pointing to the girl and the boy in turn.

Melissa just nodded while Rex offered a more _friendly_ greeting. The mindcaster frowned, focusing on the two stranger's minds. She grimaced when she caught the many numbers and calculations emanating from the redhead – one Dess was bad enough. When she got to Xander she had to roll her eyes – _typical – _he was thinking about and naked women and sex 24/7. She frowned when his thoughts drifted towards her and sent him a look that could kill an army. The guy, now entirely confused, started focusing on his dinner.

The mindcaster smirked when she realized Buffy was still stewing in her seat and sent the blonde an all too-sweet smile. Rex, noticing this, sent her a warning glance; something she expertly ignored.

"So what? Is black like the in-colour in Bixby?" Buffy asked, eyeing Melissa, Rex and Dess. It was obviously meant as an insult, though more for Melissa than anyone else, but the mindcaster didn't even give her an inch.

"Well, funny you should ask actually. You see, we dress in black because we're actually vampires from the 15th century come to kill you all," the brunette stated simply, without a hint of sarcasm. The 

blonde had had vampires on her mind all night, something that had caught the mindcaster's interest just a little bit. Beside her Rex groaned.

"I knew it." Buffy, for her part, looked all too happy with this new fact and reached down to her left boot, obviously trying to retrieve something from within. She was stopped short however by Xander who wore a plastered smile on his face.

"Uh, Buffy, what're you doing?" he asked with false brightness.

"My job," the blonde replied as though she thought Xander was slow. Melissa's ears pricked up at this.

"She was kidding, Buffy," he told her.

"Oh," Buffy said, still not straitening up from her boot.

"So, unless you want to wind up like – oh, let's say – Faith, you might want to consider not slaying the very _human_ girl."

The Midnighters exchanged a confused look at this and the blonde smiled sheepishly before returning to her meal. Melissa caught a few wisps of thoughts coming from her and frowned when she made out the words.

_Her fault for mentioning vampires. _The blonde stabbed her food angrily. _I mean, doesn't she know not to joke about vampires around a slayer? Come on, how stupid can you get? _She glared across at the mindcaster before returning once again to her food. _I reckon Xander's wrong about her, no one that infuriating can be human. _Buffy's face suddenly brightened. _And I bet she isn't one. Absolutely not, no doubt in my mind. Now I can kill her . . . Well, after I talk to Giles first, just to be sure. I'm not crazy after all..._

Melissa raised her eyebrows at the last part; somehow she just had to disagree with the blonde. Once she'd let go of Buffy's thoughts everyone else's started crowding within her mind and to save herself a massive headache she pulled out her MP3. Buffy glared at her from across the table as she inserted her headphones, clearly thinking it was rude to listen to music while having dinner with everyone else. Melissa couldn't care less.

She could feel the energy coming off Sunnydale, tasting like electricity and ash combined as one on her tongue. It was laced with a strong chalky taste of death that she was getting from the house as well as the town. She grimaced, that was certainly a taste she could do without. It was one of the reasons she avoided cemeteries as much as she could. Great, now she was living in a town that was not only evil but stank of death. _Some holiday._

Ten minutes later and everyone was clearing the table. Melissa, still with headphones in her ears, grabbed the half empty plate in front of her – unlike Flyboy, she hardly ever had much of an appetite – and headed off towards the kitchen.

"Hey, Goth Queen," Buffy called, grabbing her free hand to halt her process.

Melissa's eyes widened; she'd taken her gloves off before coming down to dinner so she didn't ruin them. Normally this would be OK, as she'd trained pretty much everyone she knew not to touch her and she usually ate dinner alone anyway. But she'd completely overlooked the fact that she was in a new house – highly populated – with people who had never even met her before today.

The mindcaster gasped as Buffy's mind entered her own, squeezing into every nook and cranny. It was so strong a force that the brunette was nearly knocked off her feet and the plate in her hand slid to the floor with a _crash_.

"_Into every generation a girl is born, a chosen one." Melissa felt a rush of power flood through her and winced at its strength. "She alone will wield the strength and skill needed to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness," next she felt a dying loneliness that always came with power. It wasn't the same as her own – not that bad – but it still packed a punch, "stopping the swell of their numbers and the spread of their evil." That was when she felt an almost suffocating gulp of responsibility that tasted like off milk. It made her want to gag. "She is the slayer..." Melissa frowned at the next emotion: pure, utter self-importance. She'd been right, the girl did think of herself as the centre of the world._

Sometime during the chaos of emotions Rex had appeared out of nowhere and separated their hands. The mindcaster leant against his shoulder for support as the emotions and memories were suddenly drained out of her. Buffy stood in front her, looking perfect as normal, and appearing slightly confused. Melissa sighed – what had just happened helped her headache to a percentage of zero – and left the room, not bothering to pick up the pieces of plate resting on the floor.

"What's her problem?" Buffy asked nastily, eyes following the brunette out of the room.

"She's doesn't like to be touched," Rex replied, bending down to pick up the pieces of plate.

Buffy shook her head. "Weird," she concluded, bending down to help him.

Melissa didn't hang around to listen to the rest of their conversation and headed up the stairs. She could feel Rex's want to be with her as she climbed each step and his annoyance at the blonde for refusing to leave at every hint he dropped.

Melissa sighed and walked towards the spare room, her hate for the blonde increasing by every step. She was furious that Buffy had had the nerve to touch her. _OK, sure, the idiot hadn't exactly known that I didn't liked to be touched and what would happen if I was, but still: you didn't just go around grabbing people,_ she thought angrily, marching towards the spare room. The heavy metal guitar chords sounding from her MP3 did little to calm her temper and she angrily tossed it onto the bed; regretting the action immediately when the moderately loud thoughts around her grew to an extreme volume. Sighing, Melissa retrieved it from the bed and once again placed the headphones in her ears, rubbing her temples rhythmically to try and ease her ever expanding headache. _What I wouldn't give for the Blue Time right about now. _She knew it was impossible, for not only was it nowhere near midnight but they also weren't in Bixby.

The mindcaster frowned and went to go sit over on the bed. Her head was still swirling from all she'd gotten from Buffy and in the end only one thought outweighed the others: _What the hell's a slayer?_

__

_**Next: The Midnighters are about to find out that there's a lot more to Sunnydale than they first thought.**_


	7. Blue Surprise

**Blue Surprise**

Rex frowned as he turned a page in the book he was reading for English. Two days ago Melissa had taken one look at the book and said something along the lines of: 'All English books are chosen purely to torture us. It's like an unwritten rule or something,' and frankly, he had to agree with her. The book was dead boring and he knew that there were far better encyclopaedias they could read for the English subject they were doing this semester. Clearly whoever chose the reading material had stuck close to the rule: No fun during school hours. At least, it certainly seemed that way.

Rex let out a sigh of relief as he finally finished reading the five page description of a _field_ the author had written. He looked up from the book just as Dess came walking past, she was just about out of the lounge room when she stopped and backtracked to him. She eyed the book in his lap the way someone would eye a basket of dirty laundry that had been sitting in the middle of the hallway for over a year.

"I can't believe you're reading that book. I read it last semester and was nearly on the verge of poking my eyeballs out," she commented.

"Any suggestions on how to survive its torture?" He asked. "I mean, besides poking your eyeballs out."

She shrugged. "Sure. Throw it in a trashcan," she said before continuing on her way out of the room. "That's what I did."

"Right," Rex muttered, staring at the offending object in his lap. He had little trouble in believing that Dess had actually done that. In fact, he too was overly tempted to do the same, but with it being a library book and all, he really didn't have enough money to buy a replacement. So the book lived on . . . for now.

The seer glanced up in surprise as the world suddenly shuddered to a stop, the scenery around him turning blue. He looked over at the clock on the wall that was frozen at exactly 12:00. Apparently someone had forgotten to mention to Sunnydale that Bixby was the only town where the Blue Time existed. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, "5...4...3...2...1..."

"Guys, what's going on?" Jessica asked from the kitchen. "Why is Mrs Summers frozen?"

"Ow, I stubbed my toe!" Dess cried.

"Hey look, Jess, I can fly again!" _No need to guess who that was._

"What the fuck!" And that was Melissa, being awoken from her peaceful slumber.

"REX!" all four shouted.

"There we go," he sighed before setting his book down on the coffee table and standing up.

His first stop was the kitchen: he had to calm down Jessica who was almost certainly frantic and peel Jonathon off the ceiling – who knew how long the Blue Time would last in Sunnydale, and Jessica would only freak out more if her precious boyfriend ended up spending the night in hospital.

As expected the flame-bringer was panicking while Jonathon was indeed bouncing off the walls, trying to calm her whilst doing so –something he was failing miserably at. Rex sighed and grabbed the acrobat's shirt, pulling him back down onto the floor.

"What was that for?" he demanded.

"We don't know how long the Blue Time will last here in Sunnydale," Rex replied. "Hell, we didn't even know there _was_ a Blue Time in Sunnydale."

Dess suddenly appeared in the doorway, looking bright. "I think I know how to find out why there is."

The seer nodded. "Right, you do that." Though, how she was going to find out such a thing was beyond him.

With a sigh he turned to Jessica whose eyes were fixed on the stiff form of her aunt. "Come on, Jessica, it's nothing you haven't seen before. She'll be fine, you know that."

The redhead nodded, still looking slightly stunned, and followed them out as they left the kitchen.

"Rex, why the hell is there a Blue Time in Sunnydale?" Melissa demanded, marching down the stairs towards them. Despite her tone the mindcaster looked slightly happy to be in the secret hour with only four other people to tolerate and he noticed her MP3 was nowhere in sight.

"Honestly . . . I don't know," he replied.

She snorted. "Some seer you are."

Rex rolled his eyes and leant against the wall. "Dess might have an idea though," he said, choosing to ignore her comment.

The two of them glanced over at the polymath who was sitting on the couch with a large atlas – that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere – open on her lap. On her right armrest was a pad and pen, the paper already covered with thousands of calculations. Rex got a headache just looking at it.

"Just an idea?" Melissa asked, raising an eyebrow at the girl who didn't even seem to notice their presence.

Rex shrugged and took a seat as well. He could here Jonathon and Jessica outside flying around but couldn't be bothered going after them. The acrobat was unlikely to listen anyway, and the flying seemed to be the only thing keeping Jessica from hyperventilating.

A grin suddenly grew on the Melissa's face, sending chills down the seer's spine.

"Hey, Loverboy, you wouldn't happen to know where any permanent markers are, would you?" she asked, innocently enough.

He sighed, knowing that whatever she was planning he was little over powerless to stop her. After a moment's hesitation he pulled a marker out of his coat pocket and handed it over.

"Thanks," she said before sprinting up the stairs.

Now he was worried.

With a sigh Rex heaved himself up off the couch and followed after her. He reached her just as she was opening the door to Buffy's room and he felt the undeniable urge to hit his head against the wall in frustration. The blonde was doomed. After a pause the seer followed her in, frowning in confusion when he saw her rolling Buffy – who was soundly asleep in bed and completely stiff – over onto her front.

"Cowgirl, what are you doing?" he asked tiredly.

"Nothing, Rexy, nothing at all," Melissa replied, taking the lid off the black marker.

Rex sighed – he seemed to be doing that a lot lately – and took a seat on the edge of Buffy's bed, watching as she cleared the blonde's hair away from her neck. Interested despite himself he leaned forward a couple of inches as the mindcaster began to write down some words on Buffy's neck.

Once done, she pulled away with a satisfied smirk. "Now for the finishing touches."

Rex raised an eyebrow at that but didn't say anything. She removed the glove from her right hand and reached out towards the blonde's cheek.

"Melissa...," he began in a warning tone.

"Oh, relax, Loverboy. I'm not gonna damage the little cheerleader's mind. I'm just gonna implant the thought of wearing her hair up tomorrow," she told him. "Completely harmless."

Knowing that he couldn't really do much to stop her, Rex nodded his consent. "But if I see her taking a very long walk off a very short pier anytime in the near future, you'll regret it."

She grinned and, without a moment's hesitation, touched the blonde's cheek. In under thirty seconds she had pulled away and thrown the marker back to Rex who caught it with ease. Turning Buffy back over onto her back, non to carefully, she turned to him with an evil smirk. "All done."

"Let's go then, we don't know how long the secret hour's going to last here," he said before hastily exiting the room.

Melissa followed after him, rolling her eyes as she did so.

_A/N:What did yah think? Please, please review!_

_**Next: The Midnighters stumble across something they wish they hadn't.**_


	8. Something Wicked This Way Comes

_Disclaimer: Midnighters and Buffy are the property of Scott Westerfeld and Joss Whedon, yada, yada, yada, you know the drill._

**Something Wicked This Way Comes**

Dess yawned as she got out of her makeshift bed – the couch – and blinked her eyes sleepily. She glanced over at the atlas, pad and pen abandoned on the coffee table and smiled triumphantly. Last night she'd been able to prove her theory on whether or not it was the location that signified what places had the Blue Time. And she was right.

After some hasty calculations she found that Sunnydale, like Bixby, was in the centre of the number thirty-six – once you did a few calculations to make it thirty-six of course – which meant that there would be many other places out there that had the Blue Time as well. Somehow the thought made Dess feel less alone, _maybe there's another polymath out there too._ She smiled and dragged herself out of bed. Now all she had to do was tell the others.

The polymath shivered at the thought of seeing Melissa again. Ever since last night when she'd touched – well, slapped – her she'd been unable to spend much time around the mindcaster. Not after she knew how Melissa had been feeling all these years, how hard it was for her. Melissa hated pity, and Dess was in no way going to show it her. But to do so, she first needed to come to terms with what she had felt, and that meant staying away from Melissa as much as she could for the moment.

"Hey, Dess, did you find anything out last night?" Rex asked coming down the stairs with Melissa and Jessica – Jonathon was still probably asleep down in the basement. Rex and Melissa were dressed in their usual black just like Dess would soon be and she could see where Buffy had gotten the Goth picture from. Jessica on the other hand wore bright, rainbow-y colours that the polymath could just tell from the brunette's expression made Melissa want to puke.

"Yeah, actually I did," she replied, returning to the conversation that hadn't exactly started yet. "I think I know why there's a Blue Time in Sunnydale, _and_ why there's one in Bixby."

Before anyone could ask anything more they were interrupted by the stomping of someone coming down the stairs. That someone was Buffy.

"Hey, guys," Buffy said, clearing the final steps and blatantly ignoring Melissa's presence in the room. Dess sighed, she wasn't exactly in the mood for one of the blonde's and Melissa's confrontations that would no doubt take place.

"Hey, Buffy," Jessica was the first to rely – _no surprise there – _and smiled warmly at her cousin. The blonde was dressed in a pink top and white pants, her hair up in a stylish bun. For some reason the look seemed to amuse Melissa who promptly exchanged a glance with Rex.

"You got school?" Dess asked. The Midnighters had been given four weeks holiday at their own school but that didn't necessarily mean the same for Sunnydale.

"Unfortunately," Buffy replied. "You guys should pop by later if you want. I can show you around."

Rex hurriedly shook his head and Dess knew right away what he was thinking: taking Melissa to a school while on holiday would just be utterly cruel, plus, the mindcaster hadn't been looking too good lately. "We were going to explore the town today. Maybe another time."

The blonde nodded. "Well, help yourselves to some breakfast whenever you want. Mom should get back from work around 5:30 just so you know," and with that she left the room.

Dess's eyes widened when she caught sight of something written across the back of the oblivious girl's neck and nearly fell out of her chair in surprise. She glanced over at Melissa who was grinning evilly to herself and Rex who had his eyes raised skyward in exasperation. Poor Jessica just looked plain confused.

"Guys," Jonathon began, entering the room, a confused look plastered on his face, _ah, so Flyboy has finally awoken, could've taken the time to change though, _"why does Jessica's cousin have 'Bunzy Goth Queen' written across the back of her neck?"

The acrobat's words seemed to finally break the silent spell that had befallen across the group and Dess fell off the couch in a fit of laughter, rolling around on the floor like a little kid. Melissa was snorting over in the corner while even Rex was having trouble containing his amusement. The only person who didn't look overly amused was Jessica who seemed to be torn between smiling and scowling disapprovingly. Jonathon was grinning like a maniac at their reactions.

Finally Dess dragged herself up off the floor, tears of laughter still streaming down her face. "Melissa . . . you . . . ," she gasped, chocking back another laugh, "are an . . . evil person."

The mindcaster just grinned. "I know."

There was the sound of a door slamming as Buffy left for school and Jessica frowned. "Don't you think we should tell her before she gets to school?"

"God, no," Melissa said. "It's much funnier this way."

"But-"

"Jess, Jess, Jess," Dess said, getting up and swinging her arm around the other girl's shoulders. "There comes a time in every girl's life when she has to learn to stand on her own two feet. This . . . is Buffy's time."

Melissa snickered over in the corner and even Rex had to chuckle at her choice of words and tone.

"'Sides, what's the worst that could happen?" the polymath continued.

"It's still not very nice," the redhead grumbled.

"Tell you what: if by the time she gets home tonight she still hasn't realized she's got words written on the back of her neck, you get to be the one to tell her."

Jessica bit her lip, taking that in as she looked around at the faces of all the other Midnighters. Finally she let out a sigh of defeat. "Oh, all right. But I still don't like it that much."

There was a pause in which Melissa and Dess shared a triumphant smirk and Jonathon let out a _whoop_ of victory. The polymath didn't really have that much against the blonde girl but she did find what Melissa had done pretty funny, and also a little unnerving. She'd have to watch herself from now on, maybe put a few alarms up around her bed. After all, Dess was one of the heaviest sleepers known to mankind and she wasn't about to expect Melissa to overlook that.

"Anyway," Rex said finally. "Dess, you were saying something about the Blue Time?"

The polymath nodded and set to work on a long, complicated explanation on what she had found out, glaring at anyone who dared to interrupt her. At the end everyone just stared at her blankly.

Finally Jonathon spoke up. "So, uh, in English that means?"

Dess sighed; _this was going to be a long morning._

...

Dess pouted for the umpteenth time in the backseat as they drove towards the Sunnydale Zoo. At lunchtime Jessica had suggested they all go there for fun – well, more begged than suggested – and Flyboy being the great supportive boyfriend he was agreed. Rex after a little bit of consideration went along with it too; Melissa and Dess on the other hand flat out refused – Melissa because it would probably be highly populated and Dess because she wanted to stay home and work on her calculations, maybe pinpoint a few other Midnighter towns before tomorrow.

Rex of course then went into a long explanation about how – since it was a week day – there probably wouldn't be many people there. Reluctantly, Melissa agreed, although not without warning them that she'd be off at the slightest hint there were too many thoughts clinging to the air. Dess, being outnumbered, had agreed even more reluctantly, choosing to sulk the entire car ride over.

"Oh, don't be like that, Dess, it'll be fun," Jonathon, who took up the seat beside her, said, grinning encouragingly.

Dess rolled her eyes; she wasn't that much a fan of animals. Still, he might be right, it's not like she'd ever been to a zoo before.

In the front seat Melissa snorted. "Yeah, it'll be the best of fun," she said sarcastically.

Rex frowned. "I thought you didn't mind the company of animals, you know, since they don't make as much of an intrusion on your mind."

Melissa frowned, turning right down a street called _Ice-kettle_. Dess snickered at the name wondering what in the world had possessed Sunnydale to name one of its streets _that_.

"It's not the animals I'm worried about. The zoo will probably be packed, even if it is a week day."

"Or it might not be," Rex countered calmly. "After all, Sunnydale's only a small town and with most of its population at either school or work there won't be that many people who decide to go to the zoo in the afternoon today."

Dess nodded in agreement. "Statistically impossible."

"Fine," the mindcaster muttered. "But if there is I'm gonna beat you over the head with a hammer, Loverboy."

Dess couldn't help but snicker at the amusing picture Melissa had just painted and then laughed when she saw the fearful look on Rex's face. He was clearly taking her seriously. _Wonder if Melissa'll feed 'im to the lions if she can't find a jackhammer? _In the front seat Melissa snorted, clearly reading her thoughts.

"Well, will you?" the polymath asked receiving confused looks from everyone bar Melissa.

"'Course," the mindcaster replied, causing the other occupants in the car to become even more confused.

Dess laughed at Rex's clueless face; _if only he knew..._

"OK, is being freaky something you guys practice or were you just born that way?" Jonathon joked still looking confused.

The polymath shrugged. "I don't know about freaky but Melissa was born clinically insane."

Jonathon raised an eyebrow while Melissa let out a disbelieving snort in the front seat. "As opposed to the other insane?" he asked.

"You know Albert Einstein once said: 'the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,'" Jessica piped up. "So I don't think you could really call Melissa insane."

Dess rolled her eyes. "What about crazy?" she asked the tone of her voice clearly suggesting it was rhetorical.

The flame-bringer however missed this and frowned thoughtfully. "I don't know; she does hear voices in her head so I suppose crazy works." Everyone stared at her as she continued to frown, lost in her own world of thoughts.

Eventually Jonathon cleared his throat. "Jess, honey, Dess was being rhetorical."

Jessica looked up and blushed scarlet. "Oh." And then suddenly realizing what she had said only moments before. "_Oh_. Sorry Melissa."

The mindcaster just shrugged in reply not taking her eyes off the road. Dess frowned, it was OK to joke about Melissa being crazy but when you actually considered the idea things got a little messy. She knew that deep down her sanity was actually a sensitive topic with Melissa even if she hardly ever reacted to any of the jokes Dess herself made. The polymath had to wonder whether the mindcaster worried about her sanity often and whether she was afraid that being a mindcaster may one day (possibly in the near future) cause her to lose it. Considering she hadn't already.

"Dess . . . ," Melissa growled warningly.

"Oops, sorry, thinking about trigonometry now."

...

They were 2 miles, 4 kilometres, 3 metres and 6 feet from the zoo when Dess felt the car begin to slow. She frowned; knowing from her calculations that they still had a while to go yet, _what the hell are you doing, Melissa? _She thought with a shake of her head

"Cowgirl, what're you doing?" Rex asked.

Ah, so she wasn't the only one who tasted something fishy. The brunette in the front seat pulled the car to a stop and turned around to face them.

"There's something here," she said before opening the car door and stepping out.

"Something?" Dess asked looking after her as she slammed the car door shut. "What do you mean something?" Rex followed after the mindcaster, a frown plastered firmly on his face. "Would someone care to elaborate here?" she cried as Jessica and Jonathon exchanged a confused look before hopping out as well.

"Just get out of the car, Dess," Melissa ordered, none too kindly.

The polymath huffed but did as she was told; scowling when she realized Melissa had parked over a puddle. A puddle that she didn't even want to know the contents of but there was definitely something that looked like a floating sardine. _Gross. _She then caught sight of its severed head floating about three inches away. _Double gross._

"Oh, don't be such a baby, Dess," the mindcaster said irritably. "it's not like it can hurt you."

_Damn, mindcasting abilities, _Dess thought as she carefully tiptoed out of the car and through the 5 centimetre deep puddle. "So, what is this something that's here?" the polymath asked upon reaching the other Midnighters' sides.

Melissa shook her head frowning. "I don't know," she said before walking off in the direction of a broken down warehouse about 4 metres away.

"And she's off," Dess muttered before following after her along with the rest of the group.

"What are you sensing?" Rex asked calmly.

Dess suddenly had a rather amusing thought of Melissa as a bloodhound. Yeah, she could totally see the resemblance. Melissa shot her a glare from up ahead. _Now that's just an invasion of privacy._

"Something bad," the mindcaster replied to the seer's question. "Tastes like . . . copper." She paused, taking that in for a moment. "Blood."

The polymath's eyes widened. "What? And we're just following this scent. This . . . bad scent that tastes like copper which is like a translation to blood?"

"I gotta agree with Dess on this one," Jessica said. "I mean, what if there's something in there like, oh I don't know, a darkling? And it's just waiting there for some unsuspecting victim to walk in there and be mercilessly torn to pieces."

"First of all," Rex said patiently, "There couldn't possibly be a darkling in there since it's not midnight. And second of all, what if someone just had an accident and is in need of help? We can't just turn our backs."

Jessica nodded, seeing his reasoning to be perfectly true. Dess on the other hand was having a little more trouble getting over the graphic picture she had painted of a serial killer murdering them all. _Of course it's gonna be a bit difficult to 'turn our backs' seeing as bitch queen is entering the warehouse as we speak. Couldn't she have at least waited for our approval first?_

Rex had already caught sight of what Dess had seen and was running towards the advancing mindcaster, clearly not at all happy with the idea of her entering the warehouse alone. "Cowgirl, wait up."

Melissa let out an irritated breath but none the less waited for the rest of the Midnighters to catch up. Dess frowned when they reached the chained and padlocked door where the chains had_ conveniently_ been broken in half.

"Right," the polymath said, eyeing the chains and padlock that were hanging limply from the door. "Does anyone else think this is a bad idea?"

No-one answered as Rex opened the door with a deafening _creak _and walked inside, followed closely by Melissa. Dess frowned looking the building over doubtfully but followed none the less, Jessica and Jonathon close on her heels.

She looked around the rather large and, apparently, empty warehouse wondering whether it was just the creeps Melissa was getting off the place.

"Is there anywhere in this place that gives off the taste a little stronger, Cowgirl?" Rex asked, looking around the building cautiously.

"Oh, yeah," the mindcaster breathed, staring at something Dess couldn't see.

"Where?"

"There," she answered, pointing at a spot on the ground. The Midnighters began to crowd around her, searching the area for what she was pointing at.

The polymath's eyes widened when they fell on a pool of blood lying not two feet away.

"It's human," Melissa said through gritted teeth, glaring at scarlet pool.

"Really?" Dess asked, hoping that she had somehow misheard her. "You're not just saying that?"

Melissa shook her head, walking towards the pool of blood.

"Melissa!" Dess hissed, _why the hell does she want to get closer to it?_

When she reached the pool the mindcaster's lips parted as if tasting the air. Slowly she turned to look up at the roof, swaying slightly on her feet as she did so. "I think I found the source."

Cautiously the others stepped towards her, Dess all the while wondering why she'd been so reluctant to go to the zoo. In a few short seconds, that seemed more like minutes, they were all at Melissa's side. Slowly she followed the mindcaster's gaze and the first sign that she wasn't going to like what she saw was Jessica's scream. _Yeah, the zoo would've been much better._

_..._

_A/N: OK, so a bit more horror-y than I first intended, hope it wasn't too bad. Anyway, please review, you know I love them._

_**Next: the Midnighters try to cope with the aftershock of their finding.**_


	9. Should've Gone To The Zoo

_A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while I've been on holiday._

**Should've Gone To The Zoo**

In a span of about five minutes four things happened: Dess threw up, Jessica's screaming reached an even higher pitch, Rex swore – something Jonathon had never heard him do – and Melissa feinted. The latter was probably the one that called for the most attention and Jonathon wasted no time in rushing forward and catching her limp form. This did two things: stopped Rex's swearing so he could anxiously look her over and it put a halt to Jessica's screaming for all of about five seconds. Even Dess glanced up from puking her guts out long enough to let out a small noise of disbelief.

"OK, all in favour of leaving an anonymous message at the police station and getting the hell out of here say: 'Aye'," the acrobat said, bringing Melissa up into his arms so he could support her weight much more easily.

Jessica's screaming finally stopped and after a pause she nodded her head dumbly. Dess wiped her hand across her mouth and stood up, not saying anything.

Rex however shook his head. "We should call the police and wait for them to get here."

"What if they think we did this? Hello, we are at the scene of the crime," Jonathon pointed out, shifting Melissa slightly in his arms and wondering vaguely how it was possible for a girl her age to be so light.

"We haven't touched anything so we should be OK."

"I don't wanna risk it," Dess spoke up for the first time.

"I-I think we should do as Jonathon suggested, I really don't want to wait around here for the police to show up," Jessica put in shakily.

Finally Rex nodded, his eyes focused solely on Melissa's still form. The acrobat, suddenly realizing that both Melissa and Rex would prefer it if the seer was the one holding her at the moment, handed the brunette over. "I'll drive."

"Don't crash the car; the bitch goddess'll kill you," Dess put in helpfully as she and Jessica slowly made their way towards the door.

Jonathon nodded, following after them with Rex hot on his heels. The whole way back to the car he tried to banish what he'd seen in the warehouse but no matter how hard he tried the memory stayed imprinted on his brain. And as he closed the car door one image struck out at him and caused him to cringe: a woman's body hanging from the ceiling; blood dripping out of a slit on her throat and a symbol on her naked stomach. He knew for as long as he lived that he'd never be able to get that picture out of his head.

...

Rex frowned, pulling Melissa's unconscious form closer to his chest. It unnerved him a great deal to see her like this, her pale skin making her look almost dead in his arms. Not a very comforting thought to say the least. Still, it was a lot easier to feel concern for Melissa than to stew over what he'd just seen back at the warehouse. In fact worrying about Melissa was much more familiar territory than trying to decipher the after-effects of a murder he'd just seen.

So when the young mindcaster began to stir he was the first to notice.

"Cowgirl?"

Melissa moved her head slightly to the left and blinked her eyes open, staring groggily up at him. She blinked a few more times to try and make out his face before wincing suddenly. "Ah, knew it wasn't a dream," she sighed.

He smiled slightly at that. "You OK?"

"Hmm, let's see: I'm in a town that is by all standards _evil_, we just happened across a murder scene where I just happened to feint like some sissy, and, oh, let's just add in a mind-blowing headache."

Rex cringed. "Stupid question?"

She gave him a look. "Stupid question."

"Well, at least we're not that girl back at the warehouse, she'll never be OK again," Jessica, who sat in the front seat beside Jonathon, said quietly.

No-one said anything to that and Rex found himself wishing that Melissa hadn't stopped to check out the warehouse on the way to the zoo. Melissa slowly sat up in his lap and he waited patiently for her to move across onto the spare seat between him and Dess. Except she didn't. He glanced over at Dess who was looking at them with raised eyebrows and received only a shrug in response.

Rex sighed and tightened his grip on the mindcaster's waist slightly; he should've realized long ago that there was no understanding Melissa.

Closing his eyes he let his thoughts trail back to the teenage girl in the warehouse. He couldn't be sure but the symbol on her stomach had looked almost like...

"So," Jonathon began after a few minutes of silence. "Are we going back to the Summers household or continuing onto the zoo?"

Rex shook himself out of his thoughts and returned to the present.

"Are you serious? Jonathon, we just saw a dead body, we can't just go and look at animals!" Jessica cried aghast.

"Why not? It'd be a good distraction," Dess spoke up.

"For you? Maybe. For me? It'd be a headache," Melissa said.

"But do we even deserve a distraction?" the flame-bringer asked. "We didn't even wait for the police to show up after Jonathon called."

"The police were called?" the mindcaster asked.

"Oh yeah, we had this whole debate on it too," the acrobat told her, turning left down a street.

Melissa's eyes narrowed. "Oh, and Jonathon, if there is even so much as a scratch on my car after this trip you are dead."

The acrobat didn't reply, muttering grumpily to himself something along the lines of: "Car had scratches on it before I took the wheel . . . freakin' dents too . . . don' know how it can still go . . ."

Dess on the other hand had an I-told-you-so look on her face. Jessica just shook her head, bitting her lip so hard that Rex swore he could see blood.

"Oh, man, Jessica, would you cut it out?" Melissa suddenly cried after one of the awkward silences had once again taken hold. "Your thoughts are like needles in my head and your emotions aren't helping any either."

"Sorry, Melissa," the redhead mumbled, looking down at her hands.

The mindcaster sighed and leant back against his chest. Rex couldn't imagine what it would be like for Melissa at the moment, for not only did she have to deal with her own emotions but everyone else's too. Plus she must've sensed something on the body when they came across it, probably how the victim was feeling when she died.

Rex frowned and began to rub calming circles on his best friend's back. She sighed and closed her eyes; he could see quite clearly the exhaustion marring her pale face.

"I think we should go back to Jessica's aunt's house," he said suddenly.

No-one protested and Rex absentmindedly hugged Melissa closer. She felt so nice there against his chest that he never wanted to let her go. He could see the slow rise and fall of her chest as she slept and frowned. Normally Melissa didn't need much sleep but ever since arriving in Sunnydale it had come in the bucket loads. He had a feeling that the town was affecting her more than she was letting on.

With a sigh he too closed his eyes. A horrible side effect of the car's newfound silence was that there was nothing to distract Rex from thinking back to what had happened only minutes before. The symbol kept popping into his head and he cringed slightly at the resemblance it had to one he knew only all too well.

The symbol of a mindcaster.

Of course, he could easily have been mistaken. The body was hanging quite high and the symbol was undoubtedly smeared by blood. It could've been any number of things. No need to assume the worst.

Still his grip on Melissa's waist tightened even more, despite his inner reassurances.

_**Next: Melissa's dreams once again take a nasty turn. **_


	10. Like a Lamb to the Slaughter

**Like a Lamb to the Slaughter**

Melissa closed her eyes against the worsening day, unable to take its harshness anymore. She could still taste the sickly copper in her mouth and the girl's unbelievable terror before she died, like too strong a bout of salt. Melissa had always hated salt.

She could feel the emotions coming off the car's other occupants in the gallons, smothering her like a pillow. Sometimes so thick that she felt as though she was choking. It was for this very reason that she'd elected to stay in the safe enclosure of Rex's arms. If anyone could make the horrors of the world disappear it was him.

The mindcaster had of course sensed his surprise as well as that of the polymath's and found it undeniably amusing. Then he'd seemed to get over his shock and hugged her closer as if afraid she would slip free if he didn't.

With a sigh she let herself drift off to sleep.

_She was back in that dark cave again. Though this time there was no blood to be seen and she looked to be alone. Then again, she'd thought she was alone last time before that creepy voice suddenly appeared. As if on cue the sound of a stone being knocked reached her ears and she spun around. There was nothing there. The revelation somehow made Melissa more afraid than before and she pulled her black jacket tighter around her._

_**Alone. Always alone. **__The voice seemed to echo throughout the cave's countless caverns even though she knew the only place it sounded was within her mind, a chill crept down the mindcaster's spine._

_She chose not to reply and instead searched the cave for a way out. There had to be one somewhere._

_**No way out. Never a way out of your mind**__, the singsong voice said again, seeming to grow closer by every word._

_She shivered and looked around her still finding nothing. _

_**Nowhere to run.**_

_**Nowhere to hide.**_

_**Torqueo's gonna get you and you don't know why**_

_**Gonna make you bleed**_

_**Gonna make you scream**_

_**Gonna make you hurt**_

_**Ain't that right my little firefly,**__ the voice sung and Melissa closed her eyes, willing it to disappear._

_**Why don't you talk little lamb? Lost, lost little lamb. **_

_Great, now she was being called a lamb. First a firefly, then a lamb. This dream just couldn't get more disturbing._

_**Oh but it can. Oh but it can.**_

_There was a flash of movement to her right and she spun around to be confronted by a large male figure. He was hooded and cloaked so she couldn't really make out his features but he seemed to be in his mid-twenties or thirties. She gasped when she saw a squirming figure in his arms. A squirming figure that looked an awful lot like Rex._

_She tried to speak his name but nothing but air came out and her eyes widened._

_**Only thoughts exist hear little lamb. Speech is but a dream.**_

_**Rex? **__She thought really hard, willing him to look at her._

_**Cowgirl? **__The figure paused____in its squirming and glanced up at her. It was definitely Rex, she couldn't mistake that face anywhere even if his glasses were a little askew and there was a big bruise covering his left eye._

_**Oh, how sweet. I think I'll enjoy this.**_

_Melissa's eyes were like saucers as the large figure holding Rex grabbed his neck and twisted it to an unnatural degree. She let out a silent scream, tears beginning to form in her eyes as her oldest friend's form hit the ground._

_**Rex? **__was the only word echoing around her mind as she desperately willed him to get up. __**Rex!**_

"Rex!" Melissa sprung up in bed, glancing wildly around her and Rex's room; although the seer was nowhere to be seen.

For about a minute she sat there, breathing heavily as the remnants of her nightmare slowly began to clear from her mind and the panic she'd felt only moments before gradually began to subside. She didn't know how she'd ended up in bed at the Summers household, the last thing she remembered before drifting off to sleep was the warmth and safety of Rex's arms in the car.

_Rex._ She had to see him, had to make sure that he was OK, that it really was just a dream. Hesitantly the mindcaster crawled out of bed, noting absently the faint blueness of the world and how the only thoughts she could hear were those of the other Midnighters. The shudder of the Blue Time arriving must have been what had awoken her from her nightmare.

With a shiver she wrapped her arms around herself and left the room, following the faint taste of Rex's mind. She found him in the lounge room reading a book – no surprise there – and cautiously made her way over to him.

Rex glanced up in surprise. "Cowgirl?"

"Hey," Melissa greeted, taking a seat on the armrest of his couch. "What you reading?"

He looked down at his book with a raised eyebrow. "Nothing worth mentioning."

She nodded with a smile, happy that her dream had been just that: a dream. "So, where is everyone?"

"Jessica and Martinez are out flying, again. Dess is working on some weapons. Mrs Summers is asleep upstairs and Buffy's nowhere to be seen."

A smirk suddenly tugged at Melissa's lips as she remembered what she'd done to the blonde the previous night. "And how is our dear Buffy Summers?"

Rex shrugged. "She had a huge screaming fit when she got home. She knows it was you who wrote on her neck and she's not going to let it go to rest. In other words: you're dead."

The mindcaster snorted, highly doubtful that the petite girl would be able to lay a finger on her. "We'll see about that."

"You shouldn't underestimate her," Rex told her. "Especially when we know next to nothing about her."

Melissa frowned suddenly remembering something. "Hey, have you ever heard of something called a slayer?"

Rex frowned in concentration, pondering her words. "No, can't say I have. Why?"

"Just something Buffy was thinking last night. Girl thinks she's a slayer, complete nutcase obviously."

"Obviously," Rex said playfully, nodding along with her.

The mindcaster sent him a glare receiving only an amused smile in return. They didn't mention what had happened only hours before nor did Melissa mention the dream she'd just had. Because right then all they wanted was to smile, not dwell on the bad things that were happening. That they would save for another time.


End file.
